Acer Predator 21 X hands-on

Acer didn't bring just smartphones at IFA - the company is among the biggest PC makers worldwide and one of the main focuses at IFA were the new Windows 10 notebooks. The most interesting one is the Predator 21 X with a curved display aimed at the serious, on-the-go gamers.

Acer Predator 21 X

There's no doubt that the Predator 21 X is a monster. It's the first gaming laptop to sport a 21" curved IPS display of 2560 x 1080px and its dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPUs support the awesome G-Sync technology. The CPU options include the latest 7th-gen Intel Core K-series.

Inside the belly of the beast is space for up to 64GB of DDR4 RAM and four terabytes of SSD storage. This machine isn't light, at near 8 kilos, but we guess that was to be expected. It was designed to be moved easily, not to be light on your lap.

It's heavy and there are other goodies to blame for that too - Tobi eye-tracking, LED RGB mechanical keyboard with CherryMX switches and a SoundPound2+ sound system (4 speakers and 2 subwoofers). The list of cool features goes on with a numpad that flips over to become a touchpad, a large window that shows off a few of the five cooling fans.

Acer Predator 21 X

You bet Acer brought the Predator 21 X at IFA and it looks, well, alien. It's impressive however you look at it, and while it is heavy, it offers uncompromising gaming experience and a ton of coolness.

Each Predator 21 X will be made to order and shipping starts in January, 2017. Pricing is yet to be detailed.

Acer StarVR hands-on

Acer collaborated with Starbreeze and IMAX for a new breed of VR headset. Acer didn't want to compete in the home VR experience segment and instead jumped on the public entertainment, such is the IMAX.

This new StarVR will be available in the LA's IMAX VR Center, which will have a grand opening this year. This is just the first experience center of many others to follow soon after.

As you can see StarVR isn't even targeting the end users, instead Acer wants to ship it directly in mass batches to businesses.

The StarVR has 5K resolution and offers a 210-degree field-of-view. It looks really good and is almost like having a full peripheral vision at your disposal, blur-free. The effect is achieved by two different panels positioned at a specific angle and a sophisticated set of lenses.

Acer StarVR

Instead of two individual ocular lenses, the headset has just one big viewport for your eyes, like a ski mask. Interestingly, the seam between the two panels is barely noticeable, but it's there.

The good news is that the headset is quite lightweight.

Currently the headset supports only head-tracking, but Acer says it is experimenting with room-tracking and even other sensors. Right now they are testing a shotgun accessory with tracking and shooting.

Acer StarVR

It seems Acer's experiments may indeed succeed into blurring the line between the spectator and participant in movies and games, but we are yet to experience that. Then again, the first game centers utilizing the headset will open later this year - we can't wait to try one of these in action.